CORNWALL tends to support the tradition that the castle of Tewdrig, King of Cornwall, stood on the coast of this parish. Norden, writing about 1584, says that Lelant was "somctyme a haven towne, but now of late decayed by reason of the sande which has choaked the harbour and buried much of the landes and howses ; many devises they use to prevent the obsorpation of the churche ". This " ob- sorpation " is now prevented by the growth of the sand-rush {Jrundo arenaria), and the distress of past parishioners has become the delight of present-day golfers. It is natural to find these wild townas haunted by some strange old legends, though the railway that brings tourists and golfers is not favourable to the lingering of tradition. A former Vicar of Lelant, named Polkinghorn, was reputed as a great exorcist of ghosts, and his services were constantly in demand ; probably it was not in his time that a wonderful pixy-funeral was witnessed by a belated fisherman in the parish church. Lescudjack Castle, at Chyandour (i m. E. of Penzance), is a circular entrenchment in a fine defensive position. Lesnewth (3 m. E. of Boscastle) is a parish that gives its name to the Hundred in which it is situated. It is one of the instances in which the name of the secular stronghold {lis) has not been supplanted by that of the church. In Domesday the manor was named Lisniwen. The church, restored in 1866, has portions of 158
